Finally, one surprising result is that China and India are next to each other (29th and 30th of 44) in the rankings, despite India’s reputation as more Anglophone. Mr Hult says that the Chinese have made a broad push for English (they’re “practically obsessed with it”). But efforts like this take time to marinade through entire economies, and so may have avoided notice by outsiders. India, by contrast, has long had well-known Anglophone elites, but this is a narrow slice of the population in a country considerably poorer and less educated than China. English has helped India out-compete China in services, while China has excelled in manufacturing. But if China keeps up the push for English, the subcontinental neighbour’s advantage may not last.

I can agree with this. The Chinese immigrants coming over these days are much better at English than the immigrants of my parents’ generation (this comes from them, not from me).

5. If two people say it, it must be true- Madden is now so realistic that it actually makes football players more strategically sophisticated, since they can get in more reps on Madden than they can in Pop Warner. The better article is in Wired, but the Slate piece is also worth reading.